6 minute read
Employee Spotlight
Updates & Information
Grant work continued through the fall and major objectives and projects are listed below
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Elder Justice Act – Grants to Enhance Adult Protective Services
• Risk screening tool: The alleged victim risk screening tool was developed under the 2019 Elder Justice Act
Grant to Enhance Adult Protective Services from the
Administration for Community Living. The development and deployment of this specific tool is a main objective of this APS grant. Over the course of two weeks (the last week in November and the first week of December), there was a series of 4 webinar training sessions on the use of the risk screening tool for APS staff. The tool went live in TIVA2 December 16, 2022, and is required for all investigations. The tool was developed over the span of 2 years and will serve as a way to standardize the review of concerns for alleged victims that the program can address in order to improve outcomes for the vulnerable adult population. The recorded training webinar can be accessed on WSLC: risk screening tool webinar.
• Forensic interviewing: Forensic interviewing training cohorts continue each month. If you have not yet attended a training, please discuss with your supervisor.
The University of Washington is currently working to enhance the training to include content focused on alleged perpetrators and additional special circumstances in interviewing. The development of this enhances training has just begun and is expected to be completed in the fall of 2023.
• Self-Neglect Report: ADvancing States has completed their work on the self-neglect project for Washington.
Their work included a final report with recommendations on how Washington can improve the outcomes of individuals experiencing self-neglect. Kathy Greenlee presented to Washington staff on her report findings and recommendations on December 20. A recording of
Kathy’s presentation is available here.
• Fraud Findr: The program has submitted a Data Use
Agreement between the Fraud Findr (FF) and the program. Once the agreement is finalized, the program will begin a 3-month pilot test of the software with 6
Cape Disappointment Lighthouse
TIVA 2 Updates: Oct. - Jan. - and beyond! • The latest TIVA2 version released in mid-
December, 2022. • APS Risk Screening Tool is live in TIVA2. • Intake will be able to link AVs and APs before assigning investigations. • Supervisors and above have ability to do batched investigation transfers in addition to doing them one at a time. • TIVA2 Improvements Workshop planned for
Spring 2023.
frontline APS staff to test its viability as a solution to support FE investigations moving forward. FF is a cloudbased tool to support financial exploitation investigations and works by taking into account normal spending and accrual data for specific alleged victims and highlighting discrepancies that may be of interest or may be worth reviewing more closely. More information regarding the tool and the pilot test will be coming after the first quarter of 2023.
COVID Response and Relief Act
• Mental health first aid: Training in mental health first aid continues to be offered monthly to all APS staff. The is one-day training facilitated by APS staff who are certified trainers.
• Goods purchases: Each region continues to utilize grant funding to make direct goods purchases to support alleged victims. Recent purchases include: a shower bench, household cleaning supplies, a pill box, and a prepaid cellphone.
• Marketing: There is now a page on the APS SharePoint for all marketing and outreach materials. This is under the resources tab and is called marketing materials.
There you can find all the materials that were developed in partnership with NAPSA and materials developed internally.
American Rescue Plan (I & II)
• Forensic interviewing: Based on feedback from staff who attended forensic interviewing for alleged victims training,
APS is partnering with the University of Washington
Alliance to enhance forensic interviewing to include forensic interviewing of alleged perpetrators.
• Program evaluation: The program evaluation being completed by the University of Washington continues. In
October, the evaluation team interviewed 6 APS staff as a pilot group to gather information on multiple aspects of the program. In November the first round of staff surveys went out to a group of around 200 staff members. The evaluation team is compiling all the information gathered from both of these sources and will be anonymizing and providing results to leadership.
It is with great enthusiasm and excitement to share that each region of APS now has a Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Program Manager to provide support.
If you are not familiar with the CISM Program, it was established to promote the well-being of APS staff. We offer confidential support to all staff that not only includes critical incident debriefing and crisis intervention but also provide stress management, and short-term consultation to discuss challenges and stressors on and off the job.
Let me introduce you to our statewide team
TEAM
Region 1
Kara Barnes is the newest addition to the APS CISM team. She graduated with a Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Gonzaga University and has since worked at community mental health agencies in the Spokane area as an adult outpatient therapist and an adolescent intensive outpatient therapist. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she learned firsthand the impact that the pandemic has had on social service workers. As a result, Kara became passionate about prioritizing wellness in the workplace after her experience with high caseloads, low retention, limited contact with coworkers, transitioning to teleworking, and unavoidable changes as new information about the virus came daily. So, in her new role, she has been very excited to be on the frontlines of “helping our helpers”.
Region 2
Rebeca Estrada is a licensed psychologist and has been working in the field of mental health for over 20 years. She has a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology from Gonzaga University and a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Denver. Throughout her years of clinical work, she has felt privileged to work with diverse adolescent and adult clientele in various clinical settings to include outpatient community mental health, psychiatric inpatient, corrections, and hospital settings. Her experience has included providing individual, group, couples, and family therapy, and also has extensive experience with crisis response. In her management roles, she enjoyed working with staff to help them develop their skills and build on their strengths. After being in in the field for so many years, she is passionate about helping those that help others, especially since those in social services tend to put others before themselves.
Region 3
Chrystal Morisette is excited to take part in the mission of transforming lives. Her journey into the field of psychology was inspired by her passion and desire to provide support to people in service. Chrystal has a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology from Saint Martin’s University, a License in Mental Health Counseling, and a License in Marriage and Family Therapy. She has worked with a variety of demographics, including youth and families at risk, psychiatric patients, and members of the armed forces and their dependents. Chrystal is honored to serve APS employees, so they can continue to pursue the collective mission to serve vulnerable adults.
